Red oak seedlings as indicators of deer browse pressure: gauging the outcome of different white-tailed deer management approaches

After decades of high deer populations, North America forests have lost much of their previous biodiversity.  Any landscape-level recovery requires substantial reductions in deer herds, but modern societies and wildlife management agencies appear unable to devise appropriate solutions to this chronic ecological and human health crisis.  We evaluated the effectiveness of fertility control hunting in reducing deer impacts at Cornell University.  We estimated spring deer populations and planted Quercus rubra seedlings to assess deer browse pressure, rodent attack, and other factors compromising seedling performance.  Oak seedlings protected in cages grew well, but deer annually browsed ≥ 60% of unprotected seedlings.  Despite female sterilization rates of > 90%, the deer population remained stable. Neither sterilization nor recreational hunting reduced deer browse rates and neither appears able to achieve reductions in deer populations or their impacts.  We eliminated deer sterilization...